Fasting and Baptism

Hello:

Well, one more week that didn´t go as expected. In the end Jorge Luis, the son of Jociara did not get baptized because his dad, who lives five hours away in Rio de Janeiro, found out that he was going to get baptized, and refused him to get baptized. Even though he passed his interview and went to church on Sunday. However, we were blessed with a baptism this week. We fasted on Saturday to be able to have a baptism on Sunday if it was the will of the Lord.

Remember Rafael? The one we couldn´t find at home last week? We found him Saturday night at last. And he told us that he has been feeling very strongly that he wanted to get baptized THE NEXT DAY. He didn´t want to wait. I won´t lie, it was extremely stressful to organize everything, filling the baptismal font Saturday night using buckets to speed up the process, calling the ward leadership to warn them, and arranging for his interview to happen Sunday morning. But, somehow, everything turned out. It wasn´t your regular baptism. By that I mean planned, peaceful, awesome. However, it was very satisfying to see everything happen and to see him get confirmed in the meetings.

Elder Aranha is very dynamic, but he takes three medicines that give him that sleeping disease, not insomnia but the opposite. Where he falls asleep in lessons suddenly, and he has extreme problems waking up in the morning. He goes to bed early every night. Sometimes he almost falls asleep walking on the road. President has advised me to let him rest more than normal, but not to the point that it takes away from our work. Let´s just say that I am trying to find that balance. Elder Aranha is really neat though, always complimenting me and giving great input in lessons (when he is not passed out) ;)

I had my hair cut. Again.

The stoplights here are neat. A majority have a little counter next to the light that shows how many seconds the light will stay green or red. When it is red, there are little messages that run underneath the light saying annoying little things like share the road with pedestrians, smart drivers of motorcycles wear helmets, don´t be in a hurry, etc.

I played soccer with the other three elders and our ward mission leader. I was very able to keep up and compete. Looks like ten years of soccer experience weren´t for nothing. I was sore all last week.

Have a good week. Hope Thanksgiving was great.

Elder Bodily

Emergencia (Emergency)

Well,

Everything changed this week. 

Last Monday we explored downtown Campos.  It is really neat.  Big buildings, churches, bustling marketplaces, plazas full of people and shops thriving with activity.  I took some neat pictures.  And downtown is right on the river.  They already have some Christmas decorations up in the city.  Which is strange because normally Christmas in my mind is connected to cold, not sun and sweat.  Elder Collins bought a memory card and started going crazy taking pictures.  Campos is actually bigger than Vitória alone.  Except, Vitória has a lot of gigantic suburb cities just as big as it is (Serra, Vila Velha, Cariacica, Viana).  It was a neat way to spend the day.  I wrote some letters to some investiagators and baptisms from Serra.

We taught a neat lesson to Rafael reviewing the Restoration.  He was on fire...except after that we have not been able to find him home.  And he didn´t go to church.  Not good.

The two Brazilian Elders who live with us are studying a lot of English.  Some of the funny phrases they have said since then are:

´´You are a feet!´´

´´Are you a door?´´

It is too funny with their strong accent and their complete innocence, not knowing or understanding what they just said.

Then everything changed on Thursday.  After lunch we were at Joçiara´s house we got a phone call from the mission office.  Elder Collins was emergency transferred.  We had to go to the other side of Campos, talk with the zone leaders, then go to the bus station and buy tickets for the bus from Campos to Vitória at 2:00 AM!!!  Elder Collins was devastated, and I was super stressed.  We went downtown for him to buy some souvenirs, and then ran all over the city getting ready for the trip.  He packed, barely said goodbye to anyone, and then we got a ride from a member to the bus station.  We sat there for almost three hours waiting for the 2am bus.  An annoying taxi driver kept pestering us and singing to us.  I think he is crazy.  He thought he spoke English.  I was just really tired and wanted him to go away.

We arrived in Vitória at 6am, took a taxi from the bus station there to the mission office and then waited there for over an hour and a half for President to arrive and tell us what was going on.  Results:

Elder Collins is going to TRAIN a new American missionary that just got his visa.  He will be working in Vila Velha.  I am going to ´´train´´ Elder Aranha.  Elder Aranha arrived here in the mission before I did, and he was in my very first district when I first arrived in Vitória.  However, he was struck with extreme depression and soon after went home early.  He served a short term mission in São Paulo (he is from there) and has been on medication.  He is here to give it another try.  He already has six months experience on the mission, but I have been designated his trainer.  More specifically, he is from São Vicente, São Paulo.  He is short, always laughing and telling jokes, and energetic.  He has a lot of energy. 

We took the 5pm bus back to Campos after hanging out with the secretaries in the office the rest of the day and helping them do their office errands.  We arrived just in time to sleep after the exhausting and very sudden change.

So, we left to work the next morning.  Things are going slowly, but are going.  We missed a lot of key appointments because of the emergency transfer.  However, Joçiara and her two youngest children went to church.  Her son Jorge Luis (8 years old) is going to be baptized next week.  He is hilarious.  Joçiara said that before we arrived and started reading and studying and helping them, he was a trouble-maker.  Now he is helping his mom a lot more and loves the church and the missionaries.  He said that he wants to choose me to baptize him.  Even though he can barely say my name.  It usually comes out of his mouth slowly...  Elder... ... ... uh...  Buuuu oooo dee leee.  Or if he doesn´t take time to think about it it seems more like Elder Blah-lee or Elder Bolly.

In other words, in one week, everything is different.  I like Elder Aranha, but I am pretty sad that Elder Collins left.  We will be companions for at least 12 weeks because the training of new missionaries and their trainers is a 12 week program.  For some perspective,

I stayed in

the MTC for                    9 weeks

Athens 2nd ward for        4 weeks

Paper Mill Portuguese      4 weeks

Vitória                            11 weeks

Serra-Sede                     18 weeks

Anchieta                         12 weeks.

I am glad though.  Elder Aranha has a lot of good ideas, teaches with mastery, and has the fire and excitement of a new missionary.

And Ala Aurora is excellent.  I really like it here.  I think we will have a lot of success.  It is neat to be a ´´trainer´´ even though my ´´new´´ missionary is not new.

People are starting to put up Christmas lights here.  In Vitória there was a huge 40 foot tall white plastic Christmas tree with awesome lighting and ornaments next to the bus station.  I will spend Christmas with Elder Aranha.  PS.  Aranha means ´´spider´´ in English.  Elder Spider.

I played the piano yesterday in church, but I didn´t know how to play two of the hymns very well, so I used the smart piano setting where it plays the hymn for you.  You just have to decide the beat by pressing whatever key you want to the beat of the music.  It did not turn out very pretty.  I had never used it before.  But it was still better than trying to play All Creatures of Our God and King on the fly.  What can you do?  The second one was better. ish.  I really confused the music leader because she barely knows how to lead the music when the music is normal.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Eat turkey for me!!!  And candied yams! 

Elder Bodily

Campos, minha cidade meu amor (Campos, my city, my love)

Dear all,

 

This week flew by. In general, things went very well. I finished the Book of Mormon again. We had four people in the chapel with us yesterday. Two are referrals from the first counselor in the bishopric (24 years old, served a mission in Recife). Two are old investigators from past missionaries. One of the old investigators has been taught by at least 4 sets of missionaries. His name is Rafael, and he is 20 years old. He LOVES to read and learn. He has already read the Book of Mormon up to Ether, already read Gospel Principles, and is reading various church books. We had a really neat conversation/lesson with him. He has committed to finally take the step to be baptized. On December 3! He came to church after working until 4:30am and getting home at 5am. And to get to church on time he had to walk from his house, leaving at 7:45. He was almost dead, but he was there!

 

We are teaching a woman named Joçiara, who is mother of three children. She already had a baptismal date, but things didn´t work out. That was in March. We ran into her and made friends with her. She is a single mom. Her dream is to get married to someone in the church, go to church every Sunday with her husband, and have one more child. She is 29 years old. She knows almost everything about the missionary lessons. She has the goal to be baptized, and her kids love the church. One of them went yesterday (Jorge Luis, 8 years old). We will try to set a specific goal with her this week.

 

It is heating up here. Eeek.

 

Elder Collins is hilarious. And a neat missonary. We make a good team. He likes to talk. He is taller than me and looks older than me, even though he is 19. And, he weighs 225 pounds. So, everyone thinks he is the senior until they hear us both talk. Funny. 

I am officially the pianist in Ala Aurora. No one knows how to play in the whole ward. They are thrilled to have a piano player, if only for a small time.

 

Side note, Elder Collins has a version of Risk called War. It is Portuguese. So every night for 15 minutes we play a little. I am the second strongest out of us four. Just in case you wanted to know.

I cleaned the shower this morning before studies. It took 40 minutes. I used a sponge and probably a half a cup of liquid dish soap. Thick black mold and hairballs. I don´t even want to think about how long it has been since someone has cleaned it. Our house is so old and so dirty. Elder Collins is tidy, but the other two Elders in the house with us are...uh...not so tidy. I killed a cockroach last night. I saw a lizard on our floor a week ago. Gotta love it.

 

I think we are going to explore downtown Campos today. And Elder Collins is going to buy a new memory card since his last companion borrowed his first card, lost it, and lost all his photos. All the photos from the first 6 months of his mission.

 

Thanksgiving doesn´t exist here, so I think that it is legal to start listening to Christmas music now. 

Have a good week,

Elder bodily

Aurora

Gente,

I was transferred to Ala Aurora. The Aurora Ward. In the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro. I am now serving in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Four and a half hours from Vitória. The city here has five wards. The Campos Stake also has two branches.

My companion is Elder Collins, from Deer Park, Washington. His first companion was Elder Wilson. This is my first time with an American junior. He has much less time on the mission than I do, and so I have to understand and speak everything better than him. If I don´t understand something, it is almost certain that he didn´t also. But he is a good speaker and really puts in his effort. He is taller than me and bigger than me and looks older than me, so everyone thinks he is the senior. Funny.

Ala Aurora has been very good to us. We both arrived together in the area. AGAIN. So we are having to get to know everyone from scratch. But the experience has been the opposite of the Anchieta experience. There are so many good members here. They have helped us immensely and even helped us find people to teach. We still get lost and I use the map a lot, but we are getting a grip on the area. We live with the missionaries from the neighbor ward, Ala Turf. We also share the beautiful and recently renovated chapel. We live close to the downtown of Campos. It is a gorgeous city on a wide river. It is relatively cool here as well. Breezy and not too humid. Everything is flat flat flat for as far as the eye can see. The house is very old and has cockroaches, but it is spacious. I am no longer a district leader. Elder Anderson and Elder Gneiting are training this transfer. That means their companions are brand new missionaries from the MTC.

We are teaching the sister of a newly baptized member. She is about 50 years old and her name is Maria. She has had a really rough life. She is seeking to have more peace and more of God in her life because of all the turbulence she has experienced. Her sister Edna is super active in the church.

We are teaching the boyfriend of a member. He is 16 and is named Alexandre. He is more or less interested, but has already visited the church several times.

We are happy to be here, and we have a lot of hope that things will turn out great here in Aurora.

The missionaries of Ala Turf are Brazilans. Elder J. Lima (he was in my last district) and Elder de Olivera (hilarious, 23 years old, very new missionary).

I am going to try to send some photos now. Probably from Anchieta.

Tchau!

The End Again

Dear all,

I have been transferred. As has Elder Vieira. It seems that the area is closing. We will leave the gorgeous beaches of Anchieta tomorrow morning. We have no idea what will happen. The leadership experimented using email to tell people about transfers and not phone calls. Normally we also receive an email from President about who will train the new missionaries and who will be the new leaders. This time all we know is that we were transferred. THAT´s IT.

This week was interesting.

TUESDAY

good: we found two people who listened, paid attention to, and understood our message. they know a member here in Anchieta.

bad: lost my planner!

other: went to Vila Velha to do two baptismal interviews. they passed!

WEDNESDAY

good: found my planner in an investigator´s house!

bad: one of our best investigators was in their house, but ignored us. we made eye contact in her window, and she just ignored us.

other: we visited a member who was baptized earlier this year that is super neat and always goes to church. he made us POPCORN!

THURSDAY

good: i went to Vila Velha to do a division with Terra Vermelha.

bad: we spent most of the day cleaning the chapel and the baptismal font because it is super dirty.

other: I found a live rat in the kitchen of the ´´chapel´´, which is actually an old supermarket

FRIDAY

good: we helped a couple from Terra Vermelha enter the marriage process

bad: it took almost the whole afternoon to get the paperwork done

other: a big storm with lots of lightning passed over us, but no rain fell

SATURDAY

good: I returned to Anchieta and an investigator named Wilson agreed to go to church.

bad: lunch was super tiny because the sister forgot, and elder vieira ate 85% of the food

SUNDAY

good: church!

bad: Wilson didn´t go! Even though we woke up early, walked for thirty minutes to his house picked him up, walked with him the twenty minutes to the van, where he gave up and decided to go home.

And then I was transferred! What a crazy week!

I´m out of time. Tchau!

A Morte De Anchieta (The Death of Anchieta)

Well, the Group here in Anchieta exists no more. We will become, once more, Ramo Guarapari. The Stake President came to give a talk and give the news. We will have a van that takes us and our investigators (when we have them) and those with difficulties in health or financial conditions to Guarapari every Sunday. Effective now. This is interesting news. This will make the missionary work here more challenging, but I believe that it will strangthen the Church organization in the area. In the past two years almost everyone in Anchieta knows where the church here is, but now we start the work of informing everyone that the nearest church is way out in Guarapari. 45 minutes by bus.

Our investigator that went to church thanked us for our visits and said that we inspired her to be more active in her church. She does not intend and never intended to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she told us. Instead of visiting once again with us this week, she went to her church for the first time in a long while.

We missed the first hour of church because we were trying to pick up the four people that promised us they would go to church with us. They live in all corners of the city. Two were sleeping, one went out of town Saturday night, and the other said they would take a shower and come--but didn´t ever show up. So we arrived in time to catch the last 2 mintues of Elders Quorum and I was completely drenched in sweat.

It rained a lot this week. I miss my umbrella. It is better than direct sun, but it makes for ridiculous humidity. I don´t feel hot, but I am totally sweaty.

We have several people we are teaching that are showing a sprout of interest. Especially a father and son that made friends with the first two missionaries here in Anchieta but then fell out of contact with them and the church. We will continue to pound the pavement and beat the bushes looking for someone awesome to teach. We will see how many we can take to church in Guarapari. It will be interesting now.

Good week to all,
Elder Bodily

Anchieta, Anchieta

Well, we had interviews with President Araújo after the Zone Conference in Cariacica on Wednesday and he said that it is most likely that he will pull the missionaries out of Anchieta. He said that there are a lot of areas that need missionaries more than Anchieta. This is sad. He helped to comfort us, and said that the missionaries deserve to serve in areas where they can be excited and productive.

A van with us and five converts from the group went to Guarapari for church yesterday. Four families with cars from the Group also attended. Two couples from Guarapari, one couple and child from Iriri, and one mom and two kids from Piúma. With both of us missionaries, Anchieta had a showing of 18 there in Guarapari. I played the organ, including the ever famous God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand complete with the organ trills. (I had to rehearse this with the music leader for half an hour on Saturday before she got the hang of it). No one is used to singing with a piano/organ here.

We will be losing a big group this transfer. About 14 missionaries are finishing their missions. Elder Bagley would have been finishing his mission right now. Word has it that 11 missionaries are arriving. This will make for a very interesting transfer.

We met a man who supposedly knew everything about the Church. Even though he has never visited, never read the Book of Mormon, and never talked with missionaries. He told us lots of nonsense about Joseph Smith. He said he learned it all from a documentary on the TV. Very reliable source.

It rained all week with a breeze. It was nice and cool every day.

No one that we are teaching has the desire to go to Guarapari to visit the church. This is sad. We are continuing to work and will continue to work until President tells us we are done.

Have a good week everyone.

Elder Bodily

Semana Exigente (Demanding Week)

Friends and family,

We are now well into the month of October. We had an investigator in church yesterday. She is 21, has read several passages in the Book of Mormon, and is interested in continuing to get to know the Church. This is only the second time in nine weeks that we had someone come to church with us. In comparison, every single week in my 18 weeks there we had AT LEAST THREE people with us at church.

We are walking a lot. One of my pairs of shoes is starting to look like a missionary shoe. Holes are visibly beginning to develop. Good thing the soles are ridiculously thick. When I started the mission I almost didn´t buy thick-soled shoes because they are ugly, but as time goes on it worth it to have ugly yet comfortable shoes.

There is going to be a big change here in the Group. The house in which we are meeting is also home to a couple. The leader of the group here and his wife. They will be moving. I don´t know what is going to happen. The stake president already told us that they are considering a decision to close the group and be reabsorbed by the Guarapari Branch. If so, it looks like I am a group killer. The Serra-Sede Group was also re-absorbed by the Serra Ward while I was serving there.

Groups are difficult.

We talked with fifty-four people on the street yesterday. It took four hours, but we succeeded. We set goals every week on how many people we are going to talk to. This week we were running behind on our goal of 190 people. We only had 136 as of Saturday night.

We had another zone meeting in Vila Velha this week. We practically live half of our lives in Vila Velha. Speaking of which, the trip to the Convent last week was super neat! It was a little foggy, so the views weren´t perfect, but it was cool and moist. We beheld the Terceira Ponte, Vila Velha and Vitória all in our sights. We took some really neat pictures too. My companion did not enjoy himself very much, but he forgave me. He prefers to sleep and sleep only on preparation day.

Two Elders in my district had a baptism, but as they filled the baptismal font in their chapel, green water came out of the tap! They had to emergency transfer the baptism to a chapel 30 minutes away! But it all worked out. In all truth it was two baptisms. A mom and her son. The Sisters there baptized one of her other sons several weeks ago.

We are really working hard to make things work here. We both want to at least have one baptism here in Anchieta.

Have a great week everyone. Love you all!
Elder Bodily

Time is Short

Gente,

I got my wish. We both will be staying here for one more transfer. However, there is a possibility that the group here is going to close. The stake president was here yesterday. No one knows what is happening, but there is a special conference of the Guarapari Branch and its Anchieta Group on Sunday. We´ll see what happens.

I saw a boy, ten years old go by on a bike. He stopped. Took off his flip flop, threw it at a fruit tree (mamão), caught a falling piece of fruit, put his flip flop back on and went pedaling down the street already eating the fruit. All in about twenty seconds. Only in Brazil.

All four of the Sisters in our district were transferred, we will see if they are replaced by Elders, or what will happen. Transfers are tomorrow. The Elders in Guarapari stayed.

We met two inactive members by accident this week. One recently moved from Belo Horizonte, after being baptized a year ago in Serra. He was waiting in front of the church at 8am wondering when the meetings here start. He saw the plack of the church and decided to see when the meetings are. Also, doing contacts on the street we met a lady who moved from Colatina some time ago who was baptized in 2003. We met and talked with them.

Time is short,

Elder Bodily

Weekend in Cobilandia

Dear everyone,

This week was crazy. Tuesday we worked in Anchieta until 6pm and then we took the bus to Vila Velha where we stayed the night with the Zone Leaders. Wednesday morning I went to Vitória for a training meeting for district leaders. Elder Vieira went back to Anchieta with another Elder. It was way neat and inspiring. We did a lot of practicing and teaching. It was also good to get to know President Araújo a little better. I had to do a practice on making commitments with people, in this case it was extending the invitation to be baptized. I had to do it in front of everyone else. Afterwards, in the feedback everyone gave great comments including President. That was pretty neat. It´s good to know that I have learned a thing or two in one year on the mission.

On our way back to Vila Velha our bus rear ended a BMW in front of us. It was quite a hit and jolt, but only damaged the bumpers of the bus and fancy black sports car. One elderly lady in the front of the bus was standing up and when we hit she fell down and hit her head, but it seems that she was okay...they called an ambulance and everything. Adventures every day.

Then I worked the rest of Wednesday and Thursday here in Cobilândia with Elder Fischer, the zone leader. Thursday night we switched back, and I worked with Elder Vieira in Anchieta all day Friday. Saturday morning we caught the bus to Vila Velha where we watched conference in the chapel in Itapoã. We stayed the night in Cobilândia again and watched conference there all day. Then we decided to stay the night AGAin and hike up to the Catholic Convent way up on the hill here in Vila Velha. It is the most popular tourist attraction in the Vitória area and symbol of the city of Vila Velha. So we are here in Vila Velha still. Conference was excellent, though I was only able to watch the Sunday morning session in English due to various complications. Everything else was in Portuguese. Taking notes in English while hearing in Portuguese is quite a feat. I am sad that it is already over. I love conference. Now the long wait until the talks get pubished in the Liahona.

I think I forgot to mention that at the transfer all the Sisters left Terra Vermelha and were replaced with four Elders. Still all Brasilians. Our district is the only district of EIGHT Elders on the mission.

I have little time once again, but next week I will write an email of real quality. I am starting to feel more and more like a Brazilian citizen especially as I get very familiar with the cities, the bus lines, the church buildings, and the people here.

Health and happiness to all!
Elder Bodily

PS. GO ON A MISSION! See Jeffrey R. Hollands talk in the Priesthood Session of conference. www.gc.lds.org